


Redemption

by Miranthia



Series: The Adventures of a Sky Badger [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 21:24:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13108809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miranthia/pseuds/Miranthia
Summary: "True redemption is seized when you accept the future consequences for your past mistakes." --Anonymous





	Redemption

“I’ll show them.” the girl muttered as she marched up the stairs, barely missing a disappearing step here and a shifting staircase there. Only one thing kept her mind occupied on her every spiraling ascent as she stomped towards her destination, wand grasped firmly in hand.  
  
Redemption.  
  
“Those smug little yuppies. We’ll see who has the last laugh  **this**  time.” She marched along an empty hallway, ears deaf to the amused mutters that followed her as she stalked past half-asleep portraits, suits or armor clinking as they watched her pass. “Susan Adelaide Hawthorne is  **not**  a  _coward_!”  
  
A chicken? Without a doubt.  
  
As she finally came to her destination, Susan faltered outside of the door, her hand stopping in midair as she reached for the brass handle of the door. Something wasn’t quite right here….. _surely_  she would have encountered some kind of resistance, after all. She hadn’t exactly been alone when she was taunted with the challenge.  
  
_Of course…._  
  
She narrowed her eyes and let her hand drop, the door bursting open as she wordlessly unlocked it, the resistance she had been expecting standing in front of her target.  
  
“It’s no use Alex, I’m doing this whether you want me to or not.”  
  
The Slytherin crossed her arms across her chest as the shorter Hufflepuff entered the room, the door snapping shut with a soft  _click_. She squared her shoulders and narrowed her own eyes, keeping her spot in front of the shaking wardrobe. “Sky, this is silly. You don’t have to prove yourself to those  _losers_.”  
  
“Yes I do!” Susan said with an exasperated sigh, stopping her attempts in rolling her sleeves up. “You don’t know what it’s like to follow in someone’s footsteps! Well, you kinda do….but this is different!!” she growled lightly as she wrenched her left sleeve all the way up, avoiding the exasperated look her friend was throwing at her. “Willow was amazing!! And gorgeous, and pretty, and popular, and brilliant. And I’m….not.”  
  
“That’s a lie and you know it. You’re the only third year I know that can already do both wandless and nonverbal magic. Most  _seventh_  years have a hard time with that! Even Minerva is just now getting and handle on it, Sky!”  
  
“Yeah well……..I’m a Metamorphmagus, Al. I’ve already got the concentration part down, so really it’s not that much of an achievement.” Finally having rolled the sleeves of her top up satisfactorily, she squared her own shoulders and cleared her throat. “Alright, you better get out of my way. Those mean Slytherin boys challenged me to take out the boggart in that wardrobe behind you, and I intend to do it. Now move.”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Alex.”  
  
“Sky.”  
  
Susan puffed out her chest and squared her jaw, glaring at her friend defiantly. “Alexandria-”  
  
Alex let her arms drop to her sides, jaw dropping in shock as she let out an indignant gasp. “You wouldn’t  _dare_!”  
  
“Callysto-”  
  
“ **Susan**!”  
  
“MacPhearson! Get your tall booty out of my way!”  
  
Alex sniffed disdainfully and stalked away from the trembling wardrobe, moving to stand next to her friend. She crossed her arms across her chest once more, eyeing the blonde next to her ruefully. “Fine. But if you get eaten, don’t come crying to me.”  
  
“Oh stop it. Alright,” Susan gulped nervously, the confidence she had been feeling the entire way up to this very room beginning to dwindle the longer she stood there, staring at the shaking piece of furniture. With a deep breath she raised her trembling wand before her and pointed it at the wooden door. “Here goes nothing!”  
  
The door burst open with a loud  _CRASH_ , and the most terrifying clown one could imagine crawled out of the wardrobe. It cocked its head to the side and grinned a menacing smile as it slowly stood to it’s full height and began tiptoeing towards the girls.  
  
Susan’s mouth dropped open in a silent scream, her eyes open wide in terror as the thing slowly got nearer to them. If she hadn’t of been gripping the handle of her wand so tightly, she would have dropped it right away.  
  
As perturbed at her friend as she was, Alex couldn’t possibly stay mad at her for long. While she herself wasn’t afraid of clowns, she had to admit; that thing coming at them was pretty creepy. “Sky, it isn’t real, remember?”  
  
“Like hell it isn’t!” she said incredulously, fighting every instinct she had that was telling her to turn tail and run.  
  
“Sky it’s just a  _creature_ , yeah? It’s only a critter taking form of the thing you fear most. It’s not a clown.”  
  
“It’s not a clown.” she repeated in a quiet, trembling voice.  
  
“It’s just a critter. You love critter’s, remember?”  
  
“It’s just a critter.”  
  
“That’s right! You’ve totally got this! All you have to do, is imagine it less scary. You are not a coward! You is strong, you is important! You have the heart of a lion, and the literal soul of a honey badger. Honey badger’s don’t take any crap from anyone!!”  
  
“Not a clown, just a critter. Got it.” she continued in her small voice, bracing herself once more. “Not a clown, just a critter, not a clown, just a critter….. Heart of a lion, soul of a badger. Heart of a lion soul of a badger. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, float like a butterfly….. Imagine it less scary! Less scary… Scary…... “ she gasped all of a sudden, her eyes becoming even wider. “WHAT IF-”  
  
With a  **pop**  the clown boggart sprouted eight massive spider legs, an evil giggle leaving it’s throat as it gnashed its sharp teeth and skittered even closer.  
  
“ALEX IT GOT WORSE.” Susan shrieked shrilly, her wand clattering to the wooden floor beneath them. “IT’S WORSE IT’S WORSE IT’S WORSE; I’M A COWARD, ALWAYS A COWARD. FORGET IT!”  
  
“You’re not a coward, you’re just a chicken!” Alex said in exasperation, shoving her flailing friend out of the way to stand in the path of the advancing spider clown. “Move it or we’re gonna be here all night.”  
  
With another  **pop**  Pennywise was gone to be replaced by a grungy porcelain doll, the eyes open wide and fixated on them.  
  
“Dolls? Really? You’re scared of a doll?” Susan said at once, her own terror immediately forgotten as she arched an eyebrow at her friend.  
  
“They’re creepy, alright?!” Alex hissed through her teeth, resisting the urge to shudder as she stared at her boggart in disbelief. “Those eyes follow you around the room, no matter where….you’re….” as she shifted her weight to her right foot, she could’ve sworn she saw the eyes shift with her, but chalked it up to the flickering candle light.  
  
Until she moved again, and the eyes followed her once more.  
  
“NOPE.” Susan said with a yell. She darted forward and kicked out at the doll, catching the toy and sending it flying back towards the wardrobe. It landed with its back towards them, and Susan let out a triumphant whoop. “See, now it’s not so bad!! At least now it’s eyes aren- WAAAH!”  
  
Both Alex and Susan screamed at the same time as the doll’s head slowly turned around to face them, wide, unseeing eyes glued to their flailing bodies as they both turned tail and ran, deciding then and there that they were both chickens. In their mad scramble for the door they hadn’t realized that a third person now stood in the room with them, one dark eyebrow quirked and a foot tapping in disbelief.  
  
“What in the frilly hell is going on in here?” Minerva asked incredulously, the sixth year eyeing the two third years skeptically.  
  
A series of inaudible screams and yells was all that could be discerned, the two frantically pointing at the boggart doll behind them as they moved to hide behind the older girl. Minerva shook her head in disbelief as she approached the boggart, taking out her wand as she did so and sighing heavily. “You two….”  
  
With another loud  **POP**  the boggart shifted for a third time, the doll being replaced by a dark, menacing looking man that Susan recognized to be Lord Voldemort. The soft gasp next to her drew her eyes towards the Gryffindor, Minerva having taken a step back, her throat bobbing up and down as she nervously gulped.  
  
While she had never seen the girl of her dreams this scared before, she couldn’t help but  _scoff_  
  
“Seriously?  _Him_? You’re scared of Moldy Voldy?!”  
  
“S-susan, he was the most evil and powerful wizard of his time!” Minerva said incredulously, unable to tear her eyes away from the menacing figure. “Only a fool wouldn’t be terrified of him!”  
  
“Minerva,” Susan said just as incredulously, putting herself in between the girl and the boggart, waving her hand carelessly behind her. “He doesn’t even have a  _nose_! What’s so scary about that?! Besides, he’s been dead for like, ever, now!”  
  
The Voldemort boggart laughed evilly and began its advance on the three, though Susan had finally managed to find her courage once more. She spun around on her heel and snapped peevishly, a zipper appearing over Voldemort’s mouth. “Hush, now! The adults are talking.”  
  
“OH, oh Susan!! Put him in a flashy dress and a wig!”  
  
“Ooooh you mean like Jessica Rabbit?!”  
  
“Who? What, no! Just something flashy!”  
  
“You Brits.” Susan tsked impatiently, giggling madly as another series of  _pops_  erupted around them, the boggart Voldemort now complete with a flashy, pink sequined dress and a long wig. “Alright darling, beautiful!! Now work it it, come on now Voldy don’t leave me hanging! Strut your stuff, girl!”  
  
Minerva dissolved into laughter with her friends as the boggart danced around in a circle, a completely and utterly bewildered look on Voldemort’s face.  
  
“Yaaaaas Queen, now strike that pose!” Susan snapped and swung her hips to the side, the boggart doing the same.  
  
Alex laughed so hard she snorted, holding her sides for dear life as she gasped for air. “Susan this is ridiculous!”  
  
“No, you mean it’s  _Riddikulus_!!!” she shouted the incantation aloud, the boggart exploding into thousands of tiny wisps of smoke, and disappeared. She did a little victory dance before she skipped towards the door, beckoning for the other two to follow her. “Come on fellow chickens, let’s get out of here.”  
  
“Whatever, I’m not a chicken.” Minerva said with a derisive sniff, the door shutting behind them as the three strode out nonchalantly into the deserted corridor.  
  
“You were  _whimpering_ , Minerva McGonagall!”  
  
“Yeah, well, you two scream like girls!”  
  
“So what, we  _are_  girls!”  
  
“At least your middle name isn’t Ca-”  
  
“ **Don’t you dare**!”  
  
Amid the laughter and bickering, the three friends finally began their descent down the spiral staircase, at least one of them ready to admit that they would  _always_  be a chicken.  
  
But never, a coward.


End file.
